You could call this the First Law of Everything.
Logic is embedded in the universe.
At the Big Bang we have no idea what the prevailing laws were. Physicists merely call it a singularity where the known laws of physics did not apply. It was just another Creation Event. But thereafter – after the Big Bang – everything we observe in the universe is logical. We take logic to be inherent in the Universe around us. We discover facets of this embedded logic empirically and intuitively (and intuition is merely the synthesis of empiricism). We do not invent logic – we discover it. If logic was ever created it was created at the time of the Big Bang.
Language, on the other hand, is invented by man to describe and communicate the world around us. We build into the framework of our languages, rules of logic such that the use of language is consistent with the embedded logic of the universe. But language is not always equal to the task of describing the universe around us. “I have not the words to describe ….”. And then we imbue old words with new meanings or invent new words, or new grammar. But we never make changes which are not consistent with the logic of the universe.
Reasoning with language is then constrained to lie within the logical framework so constructed and therefore, also always consistent with our empirical observations of the universe around us. Given certain assumptions – as expressed by language – always lead to the same logical inferences – also as described by that language. Such inferring, or reasoning, works and – within our observable universe – is a powerful way of extrapolating from the known to the not-yet-known. The logical framework itself ensures that the inferences drawn remain consistent with the logic of the universe.
In the sentence “If A is bigger than B, and if B is bigger than C, then A is bigger than C”, it is the logic framework of the language which constrains if, then and bigger to have meanings which are consistent with what we can observe. The logic framework is not the grammar of the language. Grammar would allow me to say: “If A is bigger than B, and if B is bigger than C, then A is smaller/louder/faster/heavier than C”, but the embedded logic framework of the language is what makes it ridiculous. The validity of the reasoning or of inferring requires that the logic framework of the language not be infringed. “If A is bigger than B, and if B is bigger than C, then A is smaller than C” is grammatically correct but logically invalid (incorrect). However, the statement “If A is bigger than B, and if B is bigger than C, then A is heavier than C” is grammatically correct, logically invalid but not necessarily incorrect.
Mathematics (including Symbolic Logic) also contains many languages which provide a better means of describing facets of the universe which other languages cannot. But they all contain a logic framework consistent with the embedded logic of the universe. That 1 + 1 =2 is a discovery – not an invention. That 2H2 + O2 = 2H2O is also a discovery, not an invention. The rules for mathematical operations in the different branches of mathematics must always remain consistent with the embedded logic of the universe – even if the language invented has still to find actual application. Imaginary numbers and the square root of -1 were triggered by the needs of the electrical engineers. Set theory, however, was only used in physics and computing long after it was “invented”.
Languages (including mathematics) are invented but each must have a logical framework which itself is consistent with the inherent logic of the universe.
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